FETING THE JAPANESE ROYALS

With a parade of receptions intended to showcase American cuisine and the Clinton style of entertaining, the President and First Lady are tonight throwing their first official state dinner for Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. The imperial couple arrived in the Green Room, faced a reception in the Yellow Oval Room, then white-tie state dinner in the Rose Garden, and finally an after-dinner coffee in the Blue Room. Substantive issues between the two countries were not on the plate. The monarch's role in Japan is purely ceremonial.